News Release

Thursday, March 13, 2003

Terrorist Threat Suspect Arrested

Los Angeles: On Thursday, March 13, 2003, at 12:15 a.m., members from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Homeland Security Bureau, Anti-Terrorist Division, Criminal Conspiracy Section, Criminal Investigation Section, and Hazardous Materials Unit, served an arrest and search warrant on suspect Stanley Chester Jaroszenski, Jr. at his residence, in the City of Los Angeles.

On March 12, 2003, Criminal Conspiracy Section began investigating an Anthrax scare at Norwood Elementary School, located at 2020 Oak Street, Los Angeles. The school received an ominous yellow manila envelope in the mail that depicted photocopies of military weapons on the front side and had the words "Anthrax per Asian News Channel" written and underlined in red felt marker on the back-side. This wording caused enough fear for the staff members to conduct a complete evacuation of the entire school. The LAPD Hazardous Materials Unit conducted an analysis of the envelope and determined it to be free from any chemical agents.

Investigators were able to determine that the sender of the envelope, Stan Jay, was the same individual that was sending similar envelopes to various police agencies, banks and corporations for the past several weeks, dating back to early February 2003. These envelopes were not threatening in anyway.

Additionally, investigators began receiving over 75 calls from Elementary and Middle Schools within the Los Angeles area that had also received envelopes with the word "Anthrax" written in red.

Upon conducting a thorough investigation, investigators determined that Stanley Chester Jaroszenski, Jr. a.k.a. "Stan Jay" sent the envelopes with the intent to knowingly threaten the use of a weapon of mass destruction (Anthrax) in violation of 11418.5 of the California Penal Statute. The search of the suspect’s residence recovered multiple manila envelopes with the word "Anthrax" written on them, addressed to various schools. No evidence of any weapons of mass destruction was located.

The suspect was arrested for 11418.5 PC and being held on $35,000.00 bail. The suspect does not have any ties to any known terrorist groups. Photographs of some of the envelopes depicting threats are available to the members of the media at Media relations Section.